In December 1914, the Sopwith Aviation Company designed a small, two-seat biplane powered by an 80 hp (60 kW) Gnomerotary engine, which became known as the "Sigrist Bus" after Fred Sigrist, Sopwith's Works Manager. The Sigrist Bus first flew on 5 June 1915, and although it set a new British altitude record on the day of its first flight, only one was built, serving as a company runabout.[2][3]

The Sigrist Bus formed the basis for a new, larger, fighter aircraft, the Sopwith LCT (Land Clerget Tractor), designed by Herbert Smith and powered by a 110 hp (82 kW) Clerget engine. Like the Sigrist Bus, each of the upper wings (there was no true centre section) was connected to the fuselage by a pair of short (half) struts and a pair of longer struts, forming a "W" when viewed from the front, this giving rise to the aircraft's popular nickname of the 1½ Strutter.[1] The first prototype was ready in mid-December 1915,[3][4] undergoing official testing in January 1916.

The 1½ Strutter was of conventional wire-braced, wood and fabric construction, the pilot and gunner sat in widely separated tandem cockpits, with the pilot sitting in front, giving the gunner a good field of fire for his Lewis gun. The aircraft had a variable-incidence tailplane that could be adjusted by the pilot in flight, and airbrakes under the lower wings to reduce landing distance.[2][5]

A preserved Sopwith 1½ Strutter at the RAF Museum, London, showing the W-form pairs of "1½" struts that gave the aeroplane its name, and the centrally-mounted Vickers machine gun

The Vickers-Challenger synchronisation gear was put into production for the Royal Flying Corps in December 1915,[6] and in a few weeks, a similar order for the Scarff-Dibovski gear was placed for the RNAS.[7] Early production 1½ Strutters were fitted with one or the other of these gears for the pilot's fixed .303-in Vickers machine gun; due to a shortage of the new gears some early aircraft were built with only the observer's gun. Later aircraft were either fitted with the Ross or the Sopwith-Kauper gears.[8] None of these early mechanical synchronisation gears were very reliable and it was not uncommon for propellers to be damaged, or even entirely shot away.

The Scarff ring mounting was also new and production was at first slower than that of the aircraft requiring them. Various makeshift Lewis mountings as well as the older Nieuport ring mounting, were fitted to some early 1½ Strutters as an interim measure,[9] the two seaters could carry four 25 lb (11 kg) bombs underwing, which could be replaced by two 65 lb (30 kg) bombs for anti-submarine patrols.[10]

From the beginning, a dedicated light bomber version was planned, with the observer's cockpit eliminated to allow more fuel and bombs to be carried in the manner of the Martinsyde Elephant and the B.E.12, with an internal bomb bay capable of carrying four 65 lb (30 kg) bombs.[10][11]

The prototype two seater flew in December 1915[4] and production deliveries started to reach the RNAS in February 1916. By the end of April, No. 5 Wing RNAS had a complete flight equipped with the new aircraft. The Sopwiths were used both for escorting the wing's Caudron G.4 and Breguet bombers and for carrying out bombing raids themselves.[12][13] The War Office had ordered the type for the RFC in March, but because Sopwith's entire production capacity was pre-contracted to the navy, the RFC orders had to be placed with Ruston Proctor and Vickers[14] and production from these manufacturers did not get into its stride until August. Since the Somme offensive was planned for the end of June and with the RFC having a shortage of up-to-date aircraft to support the planned offensive, it was agreed that a number of Sopwiths would be transferred from one service to the other, allowing No. 70 Squadron to reach the front by early July 1916 with Sopwith-built Strutters originally intended for the Navy.[15]

A replica Sopwith 1½ Strutter in 1916 RNAS livery, flying at a 2006 air show

At first, No. 70 Squadron did very well with their new aircraft. The period of German ascendency known as the Fokker scourge was over, and the 1½ Strutter's long range, coupled with its excellent armament for the period, enabled effective offensive patrolling deep into German-held territory.[16] However, by the time No. 45 Squadron reached the front in October, the new Albatros fighters were appearing in the Jagdstaffeln. By January 1917, when No 43 Squadron arrived in France, the type was outclassed as a fighter. While the fitting of a more powerful 130 hp Clerget 9B improved performance slightly, this came too late to reverse the situation.[17] It was still a useful long-range reconnaissance aircraft when it could be provided with adequate fighter escort,[18] but was one of the types to suffer severely during "Bloody April" - No. 43 squadron alone suffering 35 casualties, from an officer establishment of 32.[19]

Like other early Sopwith types, the 1½ Strutter was very lightly built and its structure did not stand up very well to arduous war service, it was also far too stable to make a good dogfighter, and the distance between the pilot and the observer's cockpits impeded communication between them. The last operational 1½ Strutters in the RFC were replaced by Sopwith Camels in late October 1917.[18]

The type's long range and stability were good qualities for a home defence fighter and it served with three home defence squadrons, No. 37, No. 44 and No. 78 Squadrons. Most of the 1½ Strutters supplied to home defence units had been built as two-seaters but many were converted "in the field" to single-seaters to improve performance, some of these single-seaters were similar to the bomber variant, but others were of a different type, known (like similarly adapted Sopwith Camels) as the Sopwith Comic. The cockpit was moved back behind the wings and one or two Lewis guns, either mounted on Foster mountings or fixed to fire upwards, outside the arc of the propeller, replaced the synchronised Vickers.

The RNAS used most of their 1½ Strutters as bombers (in the Aegean and Macedonia as well as in France) and as shipboard aircraft; in this role, it was known as the Ship's Strutter and flew from aircraft carriers and other warships of the Royal Navy, as well as from HMAS Australia.

The RNAS and the RFC (and after April 1918 the RAF) used the type as a trainer after it had been withdrawn from operational service and, like the Sopwith Pup, it proved a popular personal aircraft for senior officers.

The largest user of the Sopwith was actually the French Aéronautique Militaire. By May 1916 it was obvious that the pusherFarman and Breguet bombers and reconnaissance aircraft were obsolete, and with the failure of their tractor aircraft replacements, particularly the Nieuport 14, something was needed to fill the gap. In response, the Sopwith was ordered in large numbers from French manufacturers in three versions, the SOP. 1A.2 (two-seat reconnaissance), SOP. 1B.2 (two-seat bomber) and SOP. 1B.1 (single-seat bomber).[20][21] While in French service, they equipped a large portion of the French bomber and artillery spotting squadrons and carried out many bombing attacks against industrial and military targets, including against the German front lines, it was not as successful against fighters, suffering substantial casualties and downing fewer enemy aircraft than either the aircraft used before it or after. With the belated introduction of the Breguet 14 A.2 and B.2, the last of the Sopwiths were finally withdrawn from operational service in early 1918 although they would continue in service with training units until after the end of the war.

Three Belgian squadrons also flew French-built Sopwiths, and surplus French Sopwiths were used by several countries postwar.

During the war, several 1½ Strutters that were interned after landing in the Netherlands were purchased for the Dutch Luchvaart Afdeeling.

Over 100 1½ Strutters were also built in Russia by Duks and Lebedev,[22] supplemented by large numbers delivered directly from Britain and France. The 1½ Strutter remained in large scale use by both the Soviet forces and White Russians during the Russian civil war and Polish-Soviet war.[23] Three were captured during this war and used by the Poles in 1919–1920.[24] Other captured ones were used by Baltic states.

The American Expeditionary Force purchased 384 two-seat Strutter observation aircraft and 130 single-seat bombers from France in 1917-18.[25] While mainly used for training, they were used operationally by the 90th Aero Squadron as an interim measure, due to a shortage of later types,[21] the U.S.Navy used a number of the two-seat Sopwiths, along with Nieuport 28s and Hanriot HD.1s and 2s as ships' aircraft in the early postwar years, testing the use of aircraft from platforms mounted on the turrets of battleships.

1.
Biplane
–
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, while a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage over a monoplane, it produces more drag than a similar unbraced or cantilever monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques, better materials and the quest for greater speed made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s. Biplanes offer several advantages over conventional cantilever monoplane designs, they permit lighter wing structures, low wing loading, however, interference between the airflow over each wing increases drag substantially, and biplanes generally need extensive bracing, which causes additional drag. Biplanes are distinguished from tandem wing arrangements, where the wings are placed forward and aft, instead of above, the term is also occasionally used in biology, to describe the wings of some flying animals. In a biplane aircraft, two wings are placed one above the other, either or both of the main wings can support ailerons, while flaps are more usually positioned on the lower wing. Bracing is nearly always added between the upper and lower wings, in the form of wires and/or slender interplane struts positioned symmetrically on either side of the fuselage. The primary advantage of the biplane over the traditional single plane or monoplane is to combine great stiffness with light weight. A braced monoplane wing must support itself fully, while the two wings of a help to stiffen each other. The biplane is therefore inherently stiffer than the monoplane, also, the structural forces in the spars of a biplane wing tend to be lower, so the wing can use less material to obtain the same overall strength and is therefore much lighter. A disadvantage of the biplane was the need for extra struts to space the wings apart, the low power supplied by the engines available in the first years of aviation meant that aeroplanes could only fly slowly. This required an even lower stalling speed, which in turn required a low wing loading, combining both large wing area with light weight. A biplane wing of a span and chord has twice the area of a monoplane the same size and so can fly more slowly. Alternatively, a wing of the same area as a monoplane has lower span and chord, reducing the structural forces. Biplanes suffer aerodynamic interference between the two planes and this means that a biplane does not in practice obtain twice the lift of the similarly-sized monoplane. The farther apart the wings are spaced the less the interference, given the slow speed and low power of early aircraft, the drag penalty of the wires and struts and the mutual interference of airflows were relatively minor and acceptable factors. The smaller biplane wing also allows greater maneuverability, during World War One, this further enhanced the dominance of the biplane and, despite the need for speed, military aircraft were among the last to abandon the biplane form. Specialist sports Aerobatic biplanes are still occasionally made, biplanes were originally designed with the wings positioned directly one above the other

2.
Sopwith Aviation Company
–
Sopwith aircraft were also used in varying numbers by the French, Belgian, and American air services during the War. In April 1919 the company was re-named Sopwith Aviation & Engineering Company Limited, in September 1920 the company entered voluntary liquidation after a move to build motorcycles failed. The patents and assets were bought by a new company H. G, a small factory subsequently opened in Woolston, Hampshire in 1914. During the First World War, the company more than 16,000 aircraft. Many more of the aircraft were made by subcontractors rather than by Sopwiths themselves. These included Fairey, Clayton and Shuttleworth, William Beardmore and Company and Ruston Proctor. Towards the end of the war, Sopwith took out a lease on National Aircraft Factory No.2, the company were able to greatly increase production of Snipe, Dolphin and Salamander fighter planes as a result. At the beginnning of the war the company had 200 employees this had reached 6,000 employees by the Armistice, at a meeting of creditors held in October 1920 it was explained that although the company had previously accumulated a surplus of £900,000 in 1918. Following a slump in the sale of motorcycles the company had liabilities of £705,430, the amount of excess profit duty was being disputed by the company which had already paid £450,000 in duty. The meeting concluded that the best result would be to sell the business as a going concern, the Ham factory which was included in 38 acres of freehold land was sold to Leyland Motors. The newly formed H. G Hawker Engineering Company obtained the Sopwith patent rights, upon the liquidation of the Sopwith company, Tom Sopwith himself, together with Harry Hawker, Fred Sigrist and Bill Eyre, immediately formed H. G. Hawker Engineering, forerunner of the Hawker Aircraft and Hawker Siddeley lineage, Sopwith was Chairman of Hawker Siddeley until his retirement. These later jet types were manufactured in the factory buildings used to produce Sopwith Snipes in 1918 as Hawker Aircraft bought the Ham Factory when Leylands lease expired. Initially, Tom Sopwith himself, assisted by his personal mechanic Fred Sigrist. A float-equipped version of this won the Schneider Trophy in 1914. The landplane version was used by both the RNAS and RFC at the start of the war, with higher power and floats, the type evolved into the Sopwith Baby, which was a workhorse of the RNAS for much of the First World War. In 1916, Herbert Smith became Chief Engineer of the Sopwith company, soon after came the small and agile single-seat Scout, which quickly became better known as the Pup because of its obvious descent from the 1½ Strutter. The Pup and 1½ Strutter were the first successful British tractor fighters equipped with a gear to allow a machine gun to fire through the rotating propeller

3.
Royal Naval Air Service
–
In 1908, the British government had recognised that the use of aircraft for military and naval purposes should be investigated. To this end the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, approved the formation of an Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, both committees were composed of politicians, army officers and Royal Navy officers. After much discussion on the Committee of Imperial Defence the suggestion was approved on 7 May 1909, the airship, named Mayfly, never flew and broke in half on 24 September 1911. The then First Sea Lord, Sir Arthur Wilson, recommended that rigid airship construction be abandoned, on June 21st,1910, Lt. George Cyril Colmore became the first qualified pilot in the Royal Navy. After completing training, which Colmore paid for out of his own pocket, in November 1910, the Royal Aero Club, thanks to one of its members, Francis McClean, offered the Royal Navy two aircraft with which to train its first pilots. The Club also offered its members as instructors and the use of its airfield at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, the airfield became the Naval Flying School, Eastchurch. Two hundred applications were received, and four were accepted, Lieutenant C. R. Samson, Lieutenant A. M. Longmore, Lieutenant A. Gregory and Captain E. L. Gerrard, RMLI. After prolonged discussion on the Committee of Imperial Defence, the Royal Flying Corps was constituted by Royal Warrant on 13 April 1912 and it absorbed the nascent naval air detachment and also the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. It consisted of two wings with the Military Wing making up the Army element and Naval Wing, under Commander C. R. Samson, the naval wing, by the terms of its inception was permitted to carry out experimentation at its flying school at Eastchurch. In the summer of 1912, in recognition of the air branchs expansion, sueters remit as outlined in September 1912 stated that he was responsible to the Admiralty for all matters connected with the Naval Air Service. In the same month as the Air Department was set up, in 1913 a seaplane base on the Isle of Grain and an airship base at Kingsnorth were approved for construction. On 16 April ten officers of the Navy Service graduated from the Central Flying School, as of 7 June 44 officers and 105 other ranks had been trained at the Central Flying School and at Eastchurch, and 35 officers and men had been trained in airship work. Three non-rigid airships built for the army, the Willows, Astra-Torres, on 1 July 1914, the Admiralty made the Royal Naval Air Service, forming the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, part of the Military Branch of the Royal Navy. By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the Navy maintained twelve airship stations around the coast of Britain from Longside, Aberdeenshire in the northeast to Anglesey in the west. On 1 August 1915 the Royal Naval Air Service officially came under the control of the Royal Navy, inter-service rivalry even affected aircraft procurement. This situation continued, although most of Sopwiths post-1915 products were not designed specifically as naval aircraft, on 23 June 1917, after the Second Battle of Gaza, RNAS aircraft attacked Tulkarm in the Judean Hills. On 1 April 1918, the RNAS was merged with the RFC to form the Royal Air Force, at the time of the merger, the Navys air service had 55,066 officers and men,2,949 aircraft,103 airships and 126 coastal stations. The RNAS squadrons were absorbed into the new structure, individual squadrons receiving new squadron numbers by effectively adding 200 to the number so No.1 Squadron RNAS became No.201 Squadron RAF

4.
Royal Flying Corps
–
The Royal Flying Corps was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War, until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC supported the British Army by artillery co-operation, at the start of World War I the RFC, commanded by Brigadier-General Sir David Henderson, consisted of five squadrons – one observation balloon squadron and four aeroplane squadrons. These were first used for spotting on 13 September 1914. Aerial photography was attempted during 1914, but again only became effective the next year, by 1918, photographic images could be taken from 15,000 feet and were interpreted by over 3,000 personnel. By this time parachutes had been used by balloonists for three years, on 17 August 1917, South African General Jan Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power. On 1 April 1918, the RFC and the RNAS were amalgamated to form a new service, after starting in 1914 with some 2,073 personnel, by the start of 1919 the RAF had 4,000 combat aircraft and 114,000 personnel in some 150 squadrons. The recommendations of the committee were accepted and on 13 April 1912 King George V signed a royal warrant establishing the Royal Flying Corps, the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers became the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps a month later on 13 May. The Flying Corps initial allowed strength was 133 officers, and by the end of year it had 12 manned balloons and 36 aeroplanes. The RFC originally came under the responsibility of Brigadier-General Henderson, the Director of Military Training, and had branches for the Army. Major Sykes commanded the Military Wing and Commander C R Samson commanded the Naval Wing, the RFCs motto was Per ardua ad astra. This remains the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces, the RFCs first fatal crash was on 5 July 1912 near Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Loraine and his observer, Staff Sergeant R. H. V, an order was issued after the crash stating Flying will continue this evening as usual, thus beginning a tradition. Four months later on 11 December 1912 Parke was killed when the Handley Page monoplane in which he was flying from Hendon to Oxford crashed. The Naval Wing, with pilots and aircraft than the Military Wing. In November 1914 the Royal Flying Corps, even taking the loss of the Naval Wing into account, had expanded sufficiently to warrant the creation of wings consisting of two or more squadrons and these wings were commanded by lieutenant-colonels. In October 1915 the Royal Flying Corps had undergone further expansion which justified the creation of brigades, further expansion led to the creation of divisions, with the Training Division being established in August 1917 and RFC Middle East, being raised to divisional status in December 1917. Finally, the air raids on London and the south-east of England led to the creation of the London Air Defence Area in August 1917 under the command of Ashmore who was promoted to major-general. Two of the first three RFC squadrons were formed from the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, No.1 Company becoming No.1 Squadron, RFC, a second heavier-than-air squadron, No.2 Squadron, RFC, was also formed on the same day

5.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

6.
Aircraft
–
An aircraft is a machine that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the lift of an airfoil. The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation, crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot, but unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as type, aircraft propulsion, usage. Each of the two World Wars led to technical advances. Consequently, the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras, Pioneers of flight, first World War,1914 to 1918. Aviation between the World Wars,1918 to 1939, Second World War,1939 to 1945. Postwar era, also called the jet age,1945 to the present day, aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same way that ships float on the water. They are characterized by one or more large gasbags or canopies, filled with a relatively low-density gas such as helium, hydrogen, or hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air. When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, a balloon was originally any aerostat, while the term airship was used for large, powered aircraft designs – usually fixed-wing. In 1919 Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to ships of the air, in the 1930s, large intercontinental flying boats were also sometimes referred to as ships of the air or flying-ships. – though none had yet been built, the advent of powered balloons, called dirigible balloons, and later of rigid hulls allowing a great increase in size, began to change the way these words were used. Huge powered aerostats, characterized by an outer framework and separate aerodynamic skin surrounding the gas bags, were produced. There were still no fixed-wing aircraft or non-rigid balloons large enough to be called airships, then several accidents, such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, led to the demise of these airships. Nowadays a balloon is an aerostat and an airship is a powered one. A powered, steerable aerostat is called a dirigible, sometimes this term is applied only to non-rigid balloons, and sometimes dirigible balloon is regarded as the definition of an airship. Non-rigid dirigibles are characterized by a moderately aerodynamic gasbag with stabilizing fins at the back and these soon became known as blimps. During the Second World War, this shape was adopted for tethered balloons, in windy weather

7.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

8.
Tractor configuration
–
Through common usage, the word propeller has come to mean any airscrew, whether it actually propels or pulls the plane. In the early years of powered aviation both tractor and pusher designs were common, however, by the midpoint of the First World War, interest in pushers declined and the tractor configuration dominated. Today, propeller-driven aircraft are assumed to be tractors unless it is stated otherwise, as early as 1910, in the early years of flying, a distinction was made between a propeller and a tractor-screw. The Royal Flying Corps called the tractors Bleriot type after Louis Bleriot to distinguish them from pushers, from a military perspective, the problem with single-engine tractor aircraft was that it was not possible to fire a gun through the propeller arc without striking the propeller blades with bullets. It was employed with success by French aviator Roland Garros and was also used on at least one Sopwith Tabloid of the Royal Naval Air Service. The final solution was the gear, more properly known as a gun synchronizer, developed by Anthony Fokker. The first British tractor to be designed to be fitted with synchronization gear was the Sopwith 1½ Strutter which did not enter service until early 1916. The latter solution was used from the early 1930s until the beginning of the jet age

9.
Synchronization gear
–
The idea presupposes a fixed armament directed by aiming the aircraft in which it is fitted at the target, rather than aiming the gun independently. However, the first practical gear to enter service was that fitted to the Eindecker monoplane fighters. The success of the Eindecker led to numerous gun synchronization devices, from 1918 to the mid-1930s the standard armament for a fighter aircraft remained two synchronized rifle calibre machine guns, firing forward through the propeller. During the late 1930s, however, the role of the fighter was increasingly seen as the destruction of large, all-metal bombers. There were in fact some advantages in dispensing with centrally mounted guns altogether, nevertheless, the conclusive redundancy of synchronization gears did not finally come until the introduction of jet propulsion and the absence of a propeller for guns to be synchronized with. From the beginnings of practical flight possible military uses for aircraft were considered, thus aerial combat was by no means entirely unanticipated, and the machine gun was from the first seen as the most likely weapon to be used. It is likely that an aircraft which is capable of shooting at a machine will have the advantage. The most suitable weapon is a light, air-cooled machine-gun, the idea of coupling the firing mechanism to the propellers rotation is an affectation. The objection is the same as to any gun position which is fixed along the axis of the aircraft. Under certain circumstances this is highly undesirable, a mechanism to enable an automatic weapon to fire between the blades of a whirling propeller is usually called an interrupter or synchronizer gear. Both these terms are more or less misleading, at least in so far as explaining what happens when the gear functions. The term interrupter implies that the gear pauses, or interrupts the fire of the gun at the point where one of the blades of the passes in front of its muzzle. The difficulty is that even the relatively slowly revolving propellers of First World War aircraft typically turned twice or even three times for each shot a contemporary machine gun could fire. A two-bladed propeller would therefore obstruct the gun six times every firing cycle of the gun, a four-bladed one twelve times. Another way of putting this is that a gun would have been blocked more than forty times every second. And yet, synchronization, in the sense of the word. Even if it were feasible to pick a point on an aircraft engines tachometer at which a machine guns cyclic rate would permit it to fire through the propeller – this would be very limiting. In practice it was found that it was necessary for the gun to be fired in semi-automatic mode, at each revolution of the propeller a firing impulse was transmitted to the gun, which effectively pulled the trigger, to fire a single shot

10.
Machine gun
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A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of 300 to 1800 rounds per minute. Note that not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, unlike semi-automatic firearms, which require one trigger pull per round fired, a machine gun is designed to fire for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays the term is restricted to heavy weapons, able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition lasts. Machine guns are used against personnel, aircraft and light vehicles, or to provide suppressive fire. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours, because they become very hot, practically all machine guns fire from an open bolt, to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, although subdivided into light, medium, heavy or general-purpose, even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy guns are either mounted on a tripod or on a vehicle, when carried on foot. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on a tripod. 50in, the M249 automatic rifle is operated by an automatic rifleman, but its ammunition may be carried by other Soldiers within the squad or unit. The M249 machine gun is a crew-served weapon, Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. Many heavy machine guns, such as the Browning M2.50 caliber machine gun, are enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War, Carlos Hathcock set the record for a shot at 7382 ft with a.50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight. This led to the introduction of.50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles, selective fire rifles firing a full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles, while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles. Unlocking and removing the spent case from the chamber and ejecting it out of the weapon as bolt is moving rearward Loading the next round into the firing chamber. Usually the recoil spring tension pushes bolt back into battery and a cam strips the new round from a feeding device, cycle is repeated as long as the trigger is activated by operator. Releasing the trigger resets the trigger mechanism by engaging a sear so the weapon stops firing with bolt carrier fully at the rear, the operation is basically the same for all autoloading firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. Most modern machine guns use gas-operated reloading, a recoil actuated machine gun uses the recoil to first unlock and then operate the action. Machine guns such as the M2 Browning and MG42, are of this type, a cam, lever or actuator demultiplicates the energy of the recoil to operate the bolt

11.
Bracing (aeronautics)
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In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of strut, which act in compression or tension as the need arises, and/or wires, which act only in tension. Another disadvantage of bracing wires is that they require routine checking and adjustment, or rigging, during the early years of aviation, bracing was a universal feature of all forms of aeroplane, including the monoplanes and biplanes which were then equally common. Today, bracing in the form of lift struts is still used for light commercial designs where a high wing. Bracing works by creating a triangulated truss structure which resists bending or twisting, by comparison, an unbraced cantilever structure bends easily unless it carries a lot of heavy reinforcement. Making the structure allows it to be much lighter and stiffer. To reduce weight and air resistance, the structure may be made hollow, for example, a high-wing monoplane may be given a diagonal lifting strut running from the bottom of the fuselage to a position far out towards the wingtip. This increases the depth of the wing root to the height of the fuselage. Typically, the ends of bracing struts are joined to the internal structural components such as a wing spar or a fuselage bulkhead. Bracing may be used to resist all the forces which occur in an airframe, including lift, weight, drag. A strut is a bracing component stiff enough to resist these forces whether they place it under compression or tension, a wire is a bracing component able only to resist tension, going slack under compression, and consequently is nearly always used in conjunction with struts. A square frame made of bars is not rigid but tends to bend at the corners. Bracing it with a diagonal bar would be heavy. A wire would be much lighter but would stop it collapsing only one way, to hold it rigid, two cross-bracing wires are needed. This method of cross-bracing can be clearly on early biplanes. Another way of arranging a rigid structure is to make the cross pieces solid enough to act in compression and this method was once common on monoplanes, where the wing and a central cabane or a pylon form the cross members while wire bracing forms the outer diamond. Most commonly found on biplane and other aircraft, wire bracing was also common on early monoplanes. Unlike struts, bracing wires always act in tension The thickness and profile of a wire affect the drag it causes, wires may be made of multi-stranded cable, a single strand of piano wire, or aerofoil sectioned steel

12.
Rotary engine
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Its main application was in aviation, although it also saw use before its primary aviation role, in a few early motorcycles and automobiles. This type of engine was used as an alternative to conventional inline engines during World War I. It has been described as an efficient solution to the problems of power output, weight. The rotating mass of the engine also caused significant gyroscopic precession, depending on the type of aircraft, in the most common form, the crankshaft was fixed solidly to the airframe, and the propeller was simply bolted to the front of the crankcase. Improved cooling, when the engine was running the rotating crankcase/cylinder assembly created its own fast-moving cooling airflow, weight advantage, many conventional engines had to have heavy flywheels added to smooth out power impulses and reduce vibration. Rotary engines gained a substantial power-to-weight ratio advantage by having no need for an added flywheel, like radial engines, rotaries were generally built with an odd number of cylinders, so that a consistent every-other-piston firing order could be maintained, to provide smooth running. Rotary engines with an number of cylinders were mostly of the two row type. Rotary and radial engines look strikingly similar when they are not running and can easily be confused, unlike the rotary engine, however, radial engines use a conventional rotating crankshaft in a fixed engine block. The Musee de lAir in Paris has on display a special and it alternates between rotary and radial modes to demonstrate the difference between the internal motions of the two types of engine. It is often asserted that rotary engines had no carburetor and hence power could only be reduced by cutting the ignition using a blip switch. This was almost literally true of the Monosoupape type, which took most of the air into the cylinder through the exhaust valve, thus the richness of the mixture in the cylinder could not be controlled via the crankcase intake. The throttle of a monosoupape provided only a limited degree of speed regulation, as opening it made the mixture too rich. Early models featured a form of variable valve timing in an attempt to give greater control. Most rotaries however, had normal inlet valves, so that the fuel was taken into the already mixed with air - as in a normal four-stroke engine. The pilot needed to set the throttle to the desired setting, after starting the engine with a known setting that allowed it to idle, the air valve was opened until maximum engine speed was obtained. Throttling a running back to reduce revs was possible by closing off the fuel valve to the required position while re-adjusting the fuel/air mixture to suit. This process was also tricky, so that throttling back, especially when landing, was accomplished by intermittently cutting the ignition using the blip switch. Cutting cylinders using ignition switches had the drawback of letting fuel continue to pass through the engine, oiling up the spark plugs, also, the raw oil-fuel mix could collect in the cowling

13.
Reid and Sigrist
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Reid and Sigrist was an English engineering company based at New Malden in Surrey. It later acquired sites at Desford and Braunstone in Leicestershire, initially it developed and manufactured aircraft instrumentation and pilot selection aids but later diversified into flying training and aircraft design. During World War II the company was part of the Civilian Repair Organisation repairing, rebuilding and converting warplanes at the Desford site, post-war it continued to manufacture aviation instruments and guidance systems but also diversified further to produce cameras and optical instruments. In 1954 the company was purchased and taken-over by the Decca Record Company, Reid and Sigrist Ltd was formed in February 1928 as a private company with £4000 capital. The company was set up by Squadron-Leader George Hancock Reid DFC and Frederick Sigrist, Hawker Engineering Ltd, that would later become Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Ltd. As the company expanded and diversified further sites were acquired at Desford Aerodrome, the company ceased to exist as a separate entity when it was bought by the Decca Record Company at the end of 1954. Initially the main focus for the company was the development. An important product was a type of turn and slip indicator invented and developed by George Reid. A later version of this device was incorporated into the standard blind-flying panel adopted by the Royal Air Force in 1937, a further development was the Gyorizon which combined the functions of a turn indicator and artificial horizon in one instrument. As well as flying instrumentation the company developed a pilot selection tool. The Reid Reaction Apparatus was a device which recorded the times of trainee pilots when centralizing the a set of controls in a mock-up cockpit. Depending upon the trainees were then graded as good, average or inferior. This device was in use during the 1930s at some RAF flying schools, in 1935, Reid and Sigrist successfully applied to run one of the new Civilian Flying Training Schools, being created as part of the RAF Expansion Scheme to train new service pilots. At time the company did not possess an airfield and so a rapid countrywide search for a site was undertaken. Rapid negotiations enabled the company to purchase the airfield and also some surrounding farmland, development of the aerodrome was carried out by En-Tout-Cas Ltd, of Syston, whilst new building work was undertaken by Fairby Construction Company Ltd. A mere three months later, on 13 December 1935, the new Flying Training School was officially opened by the Minister of State for Air, Viscount Swinton of Masham. The aircraft chosen for use at the school was the De Havilland D. H. 82A Tiger Moth of which there were initially 17, later increased to 21. In 1937 the school was expanded to training of RAF Volunteer Reserve pilots and was renamed No.7 Elementary

14.
Herbert Smith (aircraft designer)
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Herbert Smith CRAeS was a British aircraft designer. Smith was born in Bradley, North Yorkshire, England, on 1 May 1889, as a youth, he attended Keighley Boys Grammar School, in West Yorkshire. Smith subsequently attended Bradford Technical College, graduating with a degree in engineering in 1907. Smith started his career with the Yorkshire machine-tool manufacturers Dean, Smith & Grace, then became a draughtsman with Northampton lift manufacturers Smith, Major, in March 1914, Smith joined the Sopwith Aviation Company as a draughtsman. Later that year, he became Sopwiths chief engineer, Smith went on to design the Pup, Triplane, Camel, and Snipe. He worked for the Sopwith firm until it dissolved in October 1920, after moving to Japan, they designed the 1MT, B1M, 1MF, and 2MR. Smith returned to England in 1924 and retired from the aviation industry

15.
Fuselage
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The fuselage is an aircrafts main body section. It holds crew, passengers, and cargo, the fuselage also serves to position control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces, which is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability. This type of structure is still in use in lightweight aircraft using welded steel tube trusses. A box truss fuselage structure can also be out of wood—often covered with plywood. Simple box structures may be rounded by the addition of supported lightweight stringers, allowing the fabric covering to form an aerodynamic shape. Geodesic structural elements were used by Barnes Wallis for British Vickers between the wars and into World War II to form the whole of the fuselage, including its aerodynamic shape. In this type of construction multiple flat strip stringers are wound about the formers in opposite spiral directions and this proved to be light, strong, and rigid and had the advantage of being made almost entirely of wood. A similar construction using aluminum alloy was used in the Vickers Warwick with less materials than would be required for other structural types, the geodesic structure is also redundant and so can survive localized damage without catastrophic failure. A fabric covering over the completed the aerodynamic shell. The logical evolution of this is the creation of fuselages using molded plywood, in this method, the exterior surface of the fuselage is also the primary structure. A typical early form of this was built using molded plywood, a later form of this structure uses fiberglass cloth impregnated with polyester or epoxy resin, instead of plywood, as the skin. An example of a larger molded plywood aircraft is the de Havilland Mosquito fighter/light bomber of World War II, no plywood-skin fuselage is truly monocoque, since stiffening elements are incorporated into the structure to carry concentrated loads that would otherwise buckle the thin skin. The use of molded fiberglass using negative molds is prevalent in the production of many modern sailplanes. The use of molded composites for fuselage structures is being extended to large aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This is the method of constructing an all-aluminum fuselage. First, a series of frames in the shape of the cross sections are held in position on a rigid fixture. These frames are then joined with lightweight longitudinal elements called stringers and these are in turn covered with a skin of sheet aluminum, attached by riveting or by bonding with special adhesives. The fixture is then disassembled and removed from the fuselage shell, which is then fitted out with wiring, controls

16.
Nickname
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A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place, or thing, for affection or ridicule. The term hypocoristic is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with an emotional bond, compared with a term of endearment. The term diminutive name refers to nicknames that convey smallness, hence something regarded with affection or familiarity, the distinction between the two is often blurred. It is a form of endearment and amusement, as a concept, it is distinct from both pseudonym and stage name, and also from a title, although there may be overlap in these concepts. A moniker also means a nickname or personal name, the word often distinguishes personal names from nicknames that became proper names out of former nicknames. English examples are Bob and Rob, nickname variants for Robert, a nickname is often considered desirable, symbolising a form of acceptance, but can sometimes be a form of ridicule. The compound word ekename, literally meaning additional name, was attested as early as 1303 and this word was derived from the Old English phrase eaca an increase, related to eacian to increase. By the fifteenth century, the misdivision of the syllables of the phrase an ekename led to its reanalysis as a nekename, though the spelling has changed, the pronunciation and meaning of the word have remained relatively stable ever since. However, it is common for the nickname to be identified after a comma following the full real name or later in the body of the text. The middle name is generally eliminated, especially in speech, like English, German uses quotation marks between the first and last names. The latter may cause confusion because it resembles an English convention sometimes used for married, in Viking societies, many people had heiti, viðrnefni, or kenningarnöfn which were used in addition to, or instead of the first name. Slaves have often used nicknames, so that the master who heard about someone doing something could not identify the slave, in capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, the slaves had nicknames to protect them from being caught, as practising capoeira was illegal for decades. In Anglo-American culture, a nickname is based on a shortening of a persons proper name. However, in societies, this may not necessarily be the case. For example, my nickname is farmer Phil In Indian society, for example, generally people have at least one nickname, Indian nicknames very often are a trivial word or a diminutive. In Australian society, Australian men will often give ironic nicknames, for example, a man with red hair will be given the nickname Blue or Bluey. A tall man will be called Shorty, an obese person Slim, in England, some nicknames are traditionally associated with a persons surname. A man with the surname Clark will be nicknamed Nobby, the surname Miller will have the nickname Dusty, there are several other nicknames linked traditionally with a persons surname, including Chalky White, Bunny Warren, Tug Wilson, and Spud Baker

17.
Lewis gun
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The Lewis gun is a First World War-era light machine gun of US design that was perfected and mass-produced in the United Kingdom, and widely used by British and British Empire troops during the war. With its distinctive barrel cooling shroud and top-mounted pan magazine, the Lewis served to the end of the Korean War and it was also widely used as an aircraft machine gun, almost always with the cooling shroud removed, during both world wars. The Lewis gun was invented by U. S. Army colonel Isaac Newton Lewis in 1911, Lewis became frustrated with trying to persuade the U. S. Army to adopt his design, so, retired from the army. He left the United States in 1913 and went to Belgium, Lewis had been working closely with British arms manufacturer the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited in an effort to overcome some of the production difficulties of the weapon. Lewis and his moved to England before 1914, away from possible seizure in the event of a German invasion. The Belgian army acquired only a handful of his guns and they were not on general issue in the Belgian Army, and were used only in a few forays by motor vehicles, south of Antwerp, against the flank of the invading German Army. The onset of the First World War increased demand for the Lewis gun, the design was officially approved for service on 15 October 1915 under the designation Gun, Lewis. 303-cal. No Lewis guns were produced in Belgium during the war, all manufacture was carried out by BSA in England, Savage did make Lewis guns in.303 British calibre, though. The Model 1916 and Model 1917 were exported to Canada and the United Kingdom, the Savage Model 1917 was generally produced in. 30-06 caliber. A number of guns were supplied to the UK under lend-lease during the Second World War. The Lewis gun was gas operated, a portion of the expanding propellant gas was tapped off from the barrel, driving a piston to the rear against a spring. The piston was fitted with a vertical post at its rear which rode in a helical cam track in the bolt and this allowed the three locking lugs at the rear of the bolt to engage in recesses in the guns body to lock it into place. The post also carried a fixed firing pin, which protruded through an aperture in the front of the bolt, only the Royal Navy retained the tube on their deck-mounted AA-configuration Lewis guns. The Lewis gun used a pan magazine holding 47 or 97 rounds, pan magazines hold the rounds, bullet-noses inwards toward the center, in a radial fan. Unlike the more common drum magazines, which hold the rounds parallel to the axis and are fed by spring tension, the Lewis magazine was driven by a cam on top of the bolt which operated a pawl mechanism via a lever. The operating rod had a toothed underside, which engaged with a cog which wound the spring, when the gun fired, the bolt recoiled and the cog was turned, tightening the spring until the resistance of the spring had reached the recoil force of the bolt assembly. At that moment, as the gas pressure in the fell, the spring unwound, turning the cog. As with a spring, the Lewis gun recoil spring had an adjustment device to alter the recoil resistance for variations in temperature

18.
Tailplane
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Not all fixed-wing aircraft have tailplanes. The function of the tailplane is to provide stability and control, in particular, the tailplane helps adjust for changes in the center of pressure or center of gravity caused by changes in speed and attitude, fuel consumption, or dropping cargo or payload. The tailplane comprises the fixed horizontal stabiliser and movable elevator. Besides its planform, it is characterised by, Number of tailplanes - from 0 to 3 Location of tailplane - mounted high, mid or low on the fuselage, fixed stabilizer and movable elevator surfaces, or a single combined stabilator or flying tail. This means that any disturbance which raises the nose produces a pitching moment which tends to raise the nose further. The longitudinal stability of an aircraft may change when it is flown hands-off, i. e. when the controls are subject to aerodynamic forces. In addition to giving a restoring force a tailplane gives damping and this is caused by the relative wind seen by the tail as the aircraft rotates around the center of mass. For example, when the aircraft is oscillating, but is aligned with the overall vehicles motion. Depending on the design and flight regime, its tailplane may create positive lift or negative lift. It is sometimes assumed that on an aircraft this will always be a net down force. On some pioneer designs, such as the Bleriot XI, the center of gravity was between the center of pressure from the wings and the tailplane, which provided positive lift. However this arrangement can be unstable and these often had severe handling issues. Later examples of aircraft from World War I and onwards into the years that had positive lift tailplanes include, chronologically. But with care a lifting tailplane can be made stable, an example is provided by the Bachem Ba 349 Natter VTOL rocket-powered interceptor, which had a lifting tail and was both stable and controllable in flight. In many modern aircraft, the center of gravity is placed ahead of the center of pressure of the main wing. The wing lift then exerts a pitch-down moment around the centre of gravity, a disadvantage is that it generates trim drag. Using a computer to control the elevator allows aerodynamically unstable aircraft to be flown in the same manner, aircraft such as the F-16 are flown with artificial stability. The advantage of this is a significant reduction drag caused by the tailplane, at transonic speeds, an aircraft can experience a shift rearwards in the center of pressure due to the buildup and movement of shockwaves

19.
Air brake (aeronautics)
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In aeronautics, air brakes or speedbrakes are a type of flight control surfaces used on an aircraft to increase drag or increase the angle of approach during landing. The earliest known air brake was developed in 1931 and deployed on the support struts. Not long after, air brakes located on the bottom of the trailing edge were developed. More modern gliders use airbrakes which may spoil lift as well as increase drag, often, characteristics of both spoilers and air brakes are desirable and are combined - most modern airliner jets feature combined spoiler and air brake controls. In addition, the drag created by the spoilers directly assists the braking effect. Reverse thrust is used to help slow the aircraft after landing. Virtually all jet powered aircraft have an air brake or, in the case of most airliners, many early jets used parachutes as air brakes on approach or after landing. The Blackburn Buccaneer naval strike aircraft designed in the 1950s had a cone that was split. It also helped to reduce the length of the aircraft in the space on an aircraft carrier. The F-15 Eagle, Sukhoi Su-27 and other fighters have an air brake just behind the cockpit, the deceleron is an aileron that functions normally in flight but can split in half such that the top half goes up as the bottom half goes down to brake. This technique was first used on the F-89 Scorpion and has since used by Northrop on several aircraft. The space shuttle used a similar system, the vertically-split rudder opened in clamshell fashion on landing to act as a speed brake, as shown in the accompanying photo. Dive brake Drogue parachute Spoiler Thrust reversal

20.
.303 British
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The.303 British or 7. 7×56mmR, is a. 303-inch calibre rimmed rifle cartridge first developed in Britain as a black-powder round put into service in December 1888 for the Lee–Metford rifle. In 1891 the cartridge was adapted to use smokeless powder and it was the standard British and Commonwealth military cartridge from 1889 until the 1950s when it was replaced by the 7. 62×51mm NATO. The.303 British has 3.64 ml cartridge case capacity, americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈17 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 254 mm,5 grooves, Ø lands =7.70 millimetres, Ø grooves =7.92 millimetres, land width =2.12 millimetres and the primer type is Berdan or Boxer. Rulings the.303 British can handle up to 365.00 MPa Pmax piezo pressure, regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C. I. P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. This means that.303 British chambered arms in C. I. P, regulated countries are currently proof tested at 456.00 MPa PE piezo pressure. The SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure for this cartridge is 49,000 psi piezo pressure, the measurement. 303-inch is the nominal size of the bore measured between the lands which follows the older black powder nomenclature. Measured between the grooves, the size of the bore is. 311-inch. Bores for many.303 military surplus rifles are found ranging from around. 309-inch up to. 318-inch. Recommended bullet diameter for standard.303 British cartridges is. 312-inch, the bolt thrust of the.303 British is relatively low compared to many other service rounds used in the early 20th century. The original.303 British service cartridge employed black powder as a propellant, and was adopted for the Lee–Metford rifle, ballistite was a stick-type smokeless powder composed of soluble nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. Unlike Cordite, Riflelite was a powder, and contained no nitroglycerine. After extensive testing, the Committee on Explosives selected Cordite for use in the Mark II.303 British service cartridge, the initial.303 Mark I and Mk II service cartridges employed a 215-grain, round-nosed, copper-nickel full-metal-jacketed bullet with a lead core. After tests determined that the bullet had too thin a jacket when used with cordite. This led to the introduction of the Cartridge S. A. Ball.303 inch Cordite Mark III, similar hollow-point bullets were used in the Mk IV and Mk V loadings, which were put into mass production. The design of the Mk IV hollow-point bullet shifted bullet weight rearwards, improving stability, the remaining stocks were used for target practice. The concern about expanding bullets was brought up at the 1899 Hague Convention by Swiss, the British and American defense was that they should not focus on specific bullet designs, like hollow-points, but instead on rounds that caused superfluous injury. The parties in the end agreed to abstain from using expanding bullets, as a result, the Mark III and other expanding versions of the.303 were not issued during the Second Boer War

21.
Vickers machine gun
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The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled.303 British machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The machine gun typically required a six to eight-man team to operate, one fired, one fed the ammunition and it was in service from before the First World War until the 1960s, with air-cooled versions of it on many Allied World War I fighter aircraft. The weapon had a reputation for solidity and reliability. Using 100 barrels, they fired a million rounds without a failure and it was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one. The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century, a muzzle booster was also added. The British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its machine gun on 26 November 1912. There were still great shortages when the First World War began, Vickers was, in fact, threatened with prosecution for war profiteering, due to the exorbitant price it was demanding for each gun. As a result, the price was slashed, as the war progressed, and numbers increased, it became the British Armys primary machine gun, and served on all fronts during the conflict. After the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps was disbanded, however, the Vickers remained in service with the British Army until 30 March 1968. Its last operational use was in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency and its successor in UK service is the L7 GPMG. In 1913, a Vickers machine gun was mounted on the experimental Vickers E. F. B.1 biplane, which was probably the worlds first purpose-built combat aeroplane. However, by the time the version, the Vickers F. B.5, had entered service the following year. During World War I, the Vickers gun became a weapon on British and French military aircraft. Although heavier than the Lewis, its closed bolt firing cycle made it easier to synchronize to allow it to fire through aircraft propellers. The belt feed was enclosed right up to the guns feed-way to inhibit effects from wind, steel disintegrating-link ammunition belts were perfected in the UK by William de Courcy Prideaux in mid-war and became standard for aircraft guns thereafter. The famous Sopwith Camel and the SPAD XIII types used twin synchronized Vickers, as did most British and French fighters between 1918 and the mid-1930s. Several sets of louvred slots were cut into the jacket to aid air cooling. The Gloster Gladiator was the last RAF fighter to be armed with the Vickers, the Fairey Swordfish continued to be fitted with the weapon until production ended in August 1944

22.
Scarff ring
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The Scarff ring was a type of machine gun mounting developed during the First World War by Warrant Officer F. W. Scarff of the Admiralty Air Department for use on two-seater aircraft. In either case, the mounting was simple and rugged, and it was widely adapted and copied for other airforces. As well as becoming a standard fitting in the British forces during the First World War, perhaps the last British aircraft to use the mounting was the Supermarine Walrus amphibian prototype. Scarff was also involved in the development of the Scarff-Dibovsky synchronizion gear, although it was a seemingly simple device, later attempts to emulate the Scarff ring as a mounting for the dorsal Vickers K in the World War II Handley Page Hampden bomber were failures. Handley Page had designed a carriage with ball-bearing wheels running on a track around the cockpit, vibration when firing shook the balls out, jamming the mounting. In the 1930s, the Germans developed a system called the Drehkranz D30 which was used on a number of German aircraft. The Royal Flying Corps in World War I. Robinson

23.
Martinsyde Elephant
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The Martinsyde G.100 Elephant and the G.102 were British fighter bomber aircraft of the First World War built by Martinsyde. The type gained the name Elephant from its large size. The G.102 differed from the G.100 only in having a powerful engine. The initial production version, the G.100, was powered by a 120h p six-cylinder Beardmore engine and was armed with a single 0.303 in drum-fed Lewis Gun mounted above the centre section. This was later augmented by a similar weapon bracket-mounted to the fuselage side behind the cockpit). The G.100 was gradually succeeded by the G.102 with a 160 hp Beardmore engine, maximum speed of the 160 hp aircraft was 108 mph at sea-level falling to 100 mph at 10,000 ft, it had a maximum ceiling of 14,000 ft. The G.100 was built originally as a range, single-seat fighter and escort machine but on the basis of its size. Deliveries to the RFC commenced in mid 1916, a total of 270 being manufactured, the G.100 and G.102 Elephants were used in France and the Middle East, although only No.27 Squadron, RFC was completely equipped with this type. It successfully performed this role from the summer of 1916 through to late 1917 and it was also used for long-range photo reconnaissance, where stability and endurance were required. Martinsyde G.100, Single-seat fighter-scout, bomber and reconnaissance biplane, Martinsyde G.102, Single-seat fighter-scout, bomber and reconnaissance biplane, powered by a 160 hp Beardmore piston engine. Australia Australian Flying Corps No.1 Squadron AFC in Egypt and Palestine

24.
Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12
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The Royal Aircraft Factory B. E.12 was a British single-seat aeroplane of The First World War designed at the Royal Aircraft Factory. It was essentially a version of the B. E.2. The B. E.12 was essentially a B. E. 2c with the front cockpit replaced by a fuel tank. Aviation historians once considered the type a failed attempt to create an aircraft based on the B. E.2 – that was improvised and rushed into service to meet the Fokker threat. Many writers perpetuate this view or something like it, J. M. Bruce, on the other hand, has pointed out that this is simplistic at best and doesnt fit historically. At the time the B. E.12 was conceived the necessity for an aeroplane to defend itself was by no means as clear as it became later, in any case the B. E.12 cannot have been produced specifically as an answer to the Fokker. Nor was the B. E.12 rushed into service as would have relatively easy as it was a straightforward conversion of a type in production. Trials with the prototype continued through late 1915 and seem to have been concerned with the development of the new RAF4 engine. Cooling of the cylinders of the RAF4, an air-cooled V12. The type was tested as a bomber. E. 2c. The B. E. 12a variant flew for the first time in February 1916 and had the wings of the B. E. 2e. It was rather more manoeuvrable than the B. E.12 but was little improved. The B. E. 12b used the B. E. 2c airframe but had the 200 hp Hispano-Suiza engine and it was intended as a night fighter and carried wing mounted Lewis guns in place of the synchronised Vickers. Apparently it had a performance but the engine was more urgently needed for the S. E. 5a. Some of those built may never have received engines, the first B. E.12 squadron, No.19 did not reach France until 1 August 1916. It was followed by the other squadron to fly the type in France. It continued to be employed as a bomber but since an effective defensive gun could not be mounted it was too vulnerable and was withdrawn from all front line duties in France in March 1917. By the time the B. E. 12a became available in numbers the B. E.12 had already proved to be unsatisfactory and this variant was never used operationally in France

25.
Caudron G.4
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The Caudron G.4 was a French biplane with twin engines, widely used during World War I as a bomber aircraft. It was designed by René and Gaston Caudron as an improvement over their single engined Caudron G.3, the aircraft employed wing warping for banking. The first G.4 was built in 1915, and it was manufactured in France, England, the Caudron G.4 was used as a reconnaissance bomber into the heart of Germany. Later, when Germany developed a force, the aircraft had to be used for night bombings. The G.4 was in use in Belgium, France, Finland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While the Caudron G.3 was a reconnaissance aircraft, it could not carry a useful bombload. In order to solve problems, the Caudron G4 was designed as a twin engined development of the G.3. While the G.4 had a similar pod and boom layout to the G and this allowed an observer/gunner position to be fitted in the nose of the nacelle, while the additional power allowed it to carry a bombload of 100 kg. A total of 1358 G. 4s were produced in France, the G.4 entered service with the French Aéronautique Militaire in November 1915. It was the first twin engined aircraft in service in any numbers with the French, the Caudron G.4 was used to carry out bombing raids deep behind the front line, being used to attack targets as far away as the Rhineland. Increasing losses led to its withdrawal from day bombing missions by the French in the autumn of 1916. The British Royal Naval Air Service also used the G.4 as a bomber, receiving 55, of twelve were licence built by the British Caudron company. Number 4 and 5 Wing RNAS using the G.4 for attacks against German seaplane and it was finally replaced in RNAS service by Handley Page O/100 aircraft in the autumn of 1917. Italian G. 4s proved successful in operating in the mountainous Alpine fronts, the G.4 was also used by the Imperial Russian Air Force for reconnaissance purposes. The Finnish Air Force purchased one G.4 as well as two G. 3s aircraft with spares, from Flyg Aktiebolaget on April 26,1923 for 100,000 Finnish markka, the G.4 was used by the FAF as an ambulance aircraft in 1923. The first G.4 prototype flew in March 1915, the G.4 was manufactured in three main versions, A2 for reconnaissance, B2 for bombing and E2 for training. The A2 was equipped with a radio for fire spotting, B2 could carry 100 kg of bombs, there were also other bomber and escort aircraft versions. The Caudron G.6 was a further developed G.4, with a fuselage and tail replacing the pod

26.
Breguet Bre.4
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This article is about an aircraft of World War I. For the pre-war design of the designation, see Breguet Type IV. The Breguet Bre.4, also variously as the Type IV. A fighter version of it was produced as the BUC and BLC, some of these saw service with the British Royal Navy. This was put into production as the BUM, a later revised bersion, the BLM, was the definitive Renault-powered version. Soon after the BUM entered service, the French Army requested that a fighter version be developed to protect the bombers from interception. Breguet responded with a lightened design armed with a 37 mm Hotchkiss cannon and this entered production as the BUC in its original Canton-Unné powered version and BLC in its Renault version. Breguet built 17 BUC/BLCs for the British Royal Navys Royal Naval Air Service using British 225-hp Sunbeam Mohawk engines, the Royal Navy called them the Breguet de Chasse. They served alongside Caudron G. 4s with No.5 Wing RNAS – the Royal Navys first air unit specifically trained for long-range bombing – in Belgium from April to June 1916, BUC Michelin-built, Canton-Unné-powered escort fighter version. BLC Michelin-built, Renault-powered escort fighter version, Breguet de Chasse Version of BLC for RNAS, powered by Sunbeam Mohawk or Rolls-Royce Falcon engine

27.
War Office
–
The name War Office is also given to the former home of the department, the War Office building located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. During August 2013 it was announced that the former War Office building would be sold on the open market. The War Office developed from the Council of War, an ad hoc grouping of the King and his military commanders which managed the Kingdom of Englands frequent wars. It was equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy, and the Air Ministry, the department had several London homes until it settled at Horse Guards in Whitehall during 1722, where it was to remain until 1858. The first War Office Secretary at War is usually said to have been William Blathwayt and it was, however, a fairly minor government job which dealt with the minutiae of administration rather than grand strategy. Issues of strategic policy during wartime were managed by the Northern and Southern Departments, from 1704 to 1855, the job of Secretary was possessed by a minister of the second rank, although he was occasionally part of the Cabinet. Many of his responsibilities were transferred to the Secretary of State for War after the creation of more senior post during 1794. The job of Secretary at War was merged with that of the Secretary of State for War during 1855, during 1855 the Board of Ordnance was abolished as a result of its perceived poor performance during the Crimean War. This powerful independent body, dating from the 15th century, had directed by the Master-General of the Ordnance. The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War resulted in the consolidation of all duties during 1855 as subordinate to the Secretary of State for War. He was not, however, solely responsible for the Army and this was reduced in theory by the reforms introduced by Edward Cardwell during 1870, which subordinated the Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary for War. His resistance to reform caused military efficiency to lag well behind that of Britains rivals, the management of the War Office was hampered by persistent disputes between the civilian and military parts of the organisation. The government of H. H. Asquith attempted to resolve this during the First World War by appointing Lord Kitchener as Secretary for War, making him the first, however, this was thought unsatisfactory, during his tenure, the Imperial General Staff was virtually dismantled. Its role was replaced effectively by the Committee of Imperial Defence, the War Office decreased greatly in importance after the First World War, a fact illustrated by the drastic reductions of its staff numbers during the inter-war period. On 1 April 1920, it employed 7,434 civilian staff and its responsibilities and funding were also reduced. During 1936, the government of Stanley Baldwin appointed a Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister during 1940, he bypassed the War Office altogether and appointed himself Minister of Defence. Clement Attlee continued this arrangement when he came to power during 1945, during 1964, the present form of the Ministry of Defence was established, unifying the War Office, Admiralty, and Air Ministry. The records of the War Office are kept by The National Archives with the code WO and it contains about 1,000 rooms across seven floors, linked by 2½ miles of corridors

28.
Vickers
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Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999. Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a foundry by the miller Edward Vickers. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor & Sanderson and Vickers brother William owned a steel rolling operation, edwards investments in the railway industry allowed him to gain control of the company, based at Millsands and known as Naylor Vickers and Company. It began life making steel castings and quickly became famous for casting church bells and its great architects, the historian Clive Trebilcock writes, Colonel T. E. and Albert Vickers. Both men were autocrats by temperament, but neither shunned advice or avoided delegation, each, in 1863 the company moved to a new site in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside. The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company and gradually acquired more businesses, in 1868 Vickers began to manufacture marine shafts, in 1872 they began casting marine propellers and in 1882 they set up a forging press. Vickers produced their first armour plate in 1888 and their first artillery piece in 1890, Vickers bought out the Barrow-in-Furness shipbuilder The Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, acquiring its subsidiary the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company. At the same time, to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim, Ordnance and ammunition made during this period, including World War I, was stamped V. S. M. The yard at Barrow became the Naval Construction Yard, with these acquisitions, Vickers could now produce a complete selection of products, from ships and marine fittings to armour plate and a whole suite of ordnance. In 1901 the Royal Navys first submarine, Holland 1, was launched at the Naval Construction Yard, in 1902 Vickers took a half share in the famous Clyde shipyard John Brown and Company. In 1911 a controlling interest was acquired in Whitehead and Company, in 1919, the British Westinghouse electrical company was taken over as the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company, Metrovick. At the same time came into Metropolitans railway interests. In 1927, Vickers merged with the Tyneside based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth, founded by W. G. Armstrong, to become Vickers-Armstrongs, armstrongs shipbuilding interests became the Naval Yard, those of Vickers on the west coast the Naval Construction Yard. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was not absorbed by the new company, in 1928 the Aviation Department became Vickers Ltd and soon after acquired Supermarine, which became the Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd. In 1938, both companies were re-organised as Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, although the former Supermarine and Vickers works continued to brand their products under their former names. 1929 saw the merger of the railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon. In 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of the Bristol, English Electric Company and this was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol. BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting, the Supermarine operation was closed in 1963 and the Vickers name for aircraft was dropped in 1965

29.
Battle of the Somme
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The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of the reaches of the River Somme in France. The battle was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and was the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front, more than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The French and British had committed themselves to an offensive on the Somme during Allied discussions at Chantilly, Oise, in December 1915. Initial plans called for the French army to undertake the main part of the Somme offensive, the first day on the Somme was, in terms of casualties, also the worst day in the history of the British army, which suffered 57,470 casualties. These occurred mainly on the front between the Albert–Bapaume road and Gommecourt, where the attack was defeated and few British troops reached the German front line, the battle is notable for the importance of air power and the first use of the tank. At the end of the battle, British and French forces had penetrated 10 km into German-occupied territory, the Anglo-French armies failed to capture Péronne and halted 5 km from Bapaume, where the German armies maintained their positions over the winter. Debate continues over the necessity, significance and effect of the battle, David Frum opined that a century later, the Somme remains the most harrowing place-name in the history of the British Empire. Allied war strategy for 1916 was decided at the Chantilly Conference from 6–8 December 1915, in December 1915, General Sir Douglas Haig replaced Field Marshal Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF. Haig favoured a British offensive in Flanders close to BEF supply routes, to drive the Germans from the Belgian coast, Haig was not formally subordinate to Marshal Joseph Joffre but the British played a lesser role on the Western Front and complied with French strategy. A week later the Germans began an offensive against the French at Verdun, by 31 May, the ambitious Franco-British plan for a decisive victory, had been reduced to a limited offensive to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun with a battle of attrition on the Somme. The Chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, intended to end the war by splitting the Anglo-French Entente in 1916, Falkenhayn chose to attack towards Verdun to take the Meuse heights and make Verdun untenable. The British would then have to begin a hasty relief offensive, Falkenhayn expected the relief offensive to fall south of Arras against the Sixth Army and be destroyed. If such Franco-British defeats were not enough, Germany would attack the remnants of armies and end the western alliance for good. Eloi, south of Ypres and reduced the German counter-offensive strategy north of the Somme, to one of passive, the Battle of Verdun began a week after Joffre and Haig agreed to mount an offensive on the Somme. The battle changed the nature of the offensive on the Somme, as French divisions were diverted to Verdun, German overestimation of the cost of Verdun to the French contributed to the concentration of German infantry and guns on the north bank of the Somme. The German offensive at Verdun was suspended in July, and troops, guns, the Brusilov Offensive, absorbed the extra forces that had been requested on 2 June by Fritz von Below, commanding the German Second Army, for a spoiling attack on the Somme. During the offensive the Russians inflicted c. 1,500,000 losses including c. 407,000 prisoners, three divisions were ordered from France to the Eastern Front on 9 June and the spoiling attack on the Somme was abandoned

30.
No. 70 Squadron RAF
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No.70 Squadron of the Royal Air Force is the first operational unit to use the new Airbus A400M Atlas. The squadron was formed on 22 April 1916 at Farnborough, and was equipped with the Sopwith 1½ Strutter, the squadron was posted to France, and in 1917 re-equipped with Sopwith Camels. The squadron briefly disbanded in January 1920, reforming nine days later at Heliopolis, Egypt, the squadron was now a bomber-transport unit operating the Vickers Vimy bomber. After transferring to Hinaidi, Iraq in December 1921, the squadron was re-equipped with Vickers Vernon’s, in addition to providing heavy transport facilities to both air and ground units they were used as air ambulances and were responsible for maintaining the Cairo-Baghdad airmail route. The squadron was commanded by Group Captain Eric Murray DSO MC, in 1929, he flew the first route to the Cape on behalf of Imperial Airways who were seeking routes for the civil flights. In December 1928, a coup against the Amir of Afghanistan by Habibullah Kalakani supported by Ghilzai peoples led to the first large scale air evacuation, the Valentia replaced the Victorias in November 1934. 70 squadron is recorded as being based at RAF Habbaniya from 1937–9 and in August 1939,70 Squadron relocated frequently in support of the 8th Army’s westward advance, first into Libya then Tunisia. In November 1943 it relocated to Djedeida 20 miles west of Tunis putting industrial targets in the North of Italy, between December 1943 and October 1945 the squadron relocated to Foggia, Italy where the Wellingtons were replaced by the long range Liberators. The squadron disbanded in April 1947 and was reformed in May 1948, at Kabrit, the squadron was equipped with Dakotas until 1950, when it re-equipped with Valettas. In 1955, the moved to RAF Nicosia, Cyprus and re-equipped with the Hastings, Vickers Valetta. In 1966 the squadron moved to RAF Akrotiri, while there they won the Lord Trophy at RAF El Adem in competition with five other medium range transport squadrons. After a brief period operating Armstrong Whitworth Argosy C. 1s, the squadron began conversion to the Hercules in 1970, after 35 years of operating the Hercules C1/C3 from Lyneham, the squadron disbanded in September 2010. The squadron reformed on 1 October 2014 and was stood up on 24 July 2015 by presentation with a new standard by Princess Anne. List of RAF squadrons Jefford, C. G, Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation

31.
Air supremacy
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Air supremacy is a position in war where a side holds complete control of air warfare and air power over opposing forces. It is defined by NATO and the United States Department of Defense as the degree of air superiority wherein the opposing air force is incapable of effective interference. There are three levels of control of the air, Air supremacy is the highest level, where a side holds complete control of the skies, Air superiority is the second level, where a side is in a more favorable position than the opponent. It is defined in the NATO glossary as the degree of dominance in air battle and that permits the conduct of operations by and its related land, sea and air forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by opposing air forces. Air parity is the lowest level of control, where a side only holds control of skies above friendly troop positions, the degree of a forces air control is a zero-sum game with its opponents, increasing control by one corresponds to decreasing control by the other. Air power has become a powerful element of military campaigns. Air supremacy allows increased bombing efforts, tactical air support for forces, paratroop assaults, airdrops and simple cargo plane transfers. Air power is a function of the degree of air superiority and numbers or types of aircraft, during the First World War, air superiority on the Western Front changed hands between the Germans and the Allies several times. Periods of German air superiority included the Fokker Scourge of late 1915 to early 1916, the Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare established air superiority over the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. The defeat suffered by Austria-Hungary in the battle caused the dissolution of the empire, in 1921, Italian aerial warfare theorist Giulio Douhet published The Command of the Air, a book positing that future wars would be decided in the skies. At the time, mainstream military theory did not see air power as a war-winning tactic, Douhets idea that air power could be a decisive force and be used to avoid the long and costly War of Attrition was influential although later events proved him wrong in many details. That would terrorize citizens into pressuring their government into immediate surrender, at the beginning of World War II, Douhets ideas were dismissed by some, but it became apparent that his theories on the importance of aircraft were supported by events as the war continued. In 1925, the Royal Air Force tested the ability of air supremacy in isolation from other warfare forms during their first independent action in Waziristan, American general Billy Mitchell was another influential air power theorist of the inter-war period. After World War I, then-Assistant Chief of Air Service in the United States Army Air Service, the first of these was Project B in 1921, in which the captured German World War I battleship, SMS Ostfriesland, was sunk by a flight of bombers in 22 minutes. He would also go on to air power advocates such as Russian-American Alexander P. Roosevelt in support of long-range bombing. At the beginning of World War II, the sides took different views on the importance of air power. Adolf Hitler saw it as a tool to support the German Army. The Allies saw it, specifically long-range strategic bombing, as being an important part of warfare which they believed capable of crippling Germanys industrial centers

32.
Fokker Scourge
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The Fokker Scourge began in the summer of 1915, during the First World War, when German Fokker E. I fighters with synchronised machine-guns, came into service over the Western Front. The Imperial German Flying Corps obtained a measure of air superiority against Allied aircraft less suitable for air fighting, significant as the technical advantage of the new fighter was, the psychological effect of its unheralded introduction was also a major factor. The term Fokker Scourge was coined in retrospect by the British press in mid-1916 and this was not unconnected with the political campaign launched by the pioneering aviation journalist C. G. Grey and Noel Pemberton Billing M. P. In early 1915, the Allies were leading the Germans in the fitting of guns to aircraft. The first aircraft used with success as fighters included the British Vickers F. B.5. On 18 April 1915, the Morane-Saulnier L of Roland Garros was captured, from 1 April, Garros had destroyed three German aircraft using this aircraft, which featured a machine-gun firing forward through the arc of the propeller. Bullets that would have damaged the propeller, were deflected by small wedge-like blades attached to the points on each propeller blade. Although Garros attempted to burn his aircraft after force-landing behind German lines, the significance of the deflector blades was immediately appreciated by the German authorities, who quickly requested several aircraft manufacturers, including Anthony Fokker, to produce a copy. Fokkers answer was the Stangensteuerung, a genuine synchronisation gear, the Stangensteuerung used impulses from a cam on the aircraft engine, to control the firing of the machine-gun so that it did not hit the propeller. This was not the first such gear proposed but was the first to be fitted to an aircraft, in a postwar biography Fokker claimed that he designed and built the gear in 48 hours but this has been largely discounted. The device was fitted to the most suitable Fokker type, the M. 5K, Fokker demonstrated A. 16/15 to the first few German fighter pilots, including Kurt Wintgens, Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann in May and June 1915. The early Eindeckers were supplied in ones and twos to the normal Feldflieger Abteilung, Fokker Eindecker E. 5/15, the last of the pre-production series, is believed to have been first flown in action by Kurt Wintgens of FFA6. On 1 and 4 July 1915, he reported combats with French Morane L Parasols, by the end of July 1915, about fifteen Eindeckers were operational with various units, including the five M. 5K/MGs and about ten early production E. I airframes. The pilots at first flew the new aircraft as a sideline, Oswald Boelcke in FFA62, scored his first victory in an Albatros C. I on 4 July. The Fokker Scourge is usually considered to have begun on 1 August, Boelcke was quickly into the air after the raiders, in Fokker M. 5K/MG Eindecker E. 3/15 and Immelmann followed in E. 13/15. Boelcke suffered a gun jam but Immelmann caught one of the raiders and his victory was over a B. E. 2c, flown without an observer or Lewis gun to carry bombs and the pilot fired at Immelmann with an automatic pistol. After about ten minutes of manoeuvring, Immelmann had fired 450 rounds, RFC pilots reported that the new fighter could make long, steep dives and that the fixed, synchronised machine-gun was aimed by aiming the aircraft. The Fokker pilot was also assisted by the machine-gun being belt-fed, although air fighting was new, the Fokker pilots took to flying high and diving on aircraft, preferably out of the sun, firing a long burst and continuing the dive until well out of range

33.
No. 45 Squadron RAF
–
45 Squadron is a flying squadron of the Royal Air Force. It was established on 1 March 1916 as part of the Royal Flying Corps, formed during World War I at Gosport on 1 March 1916 as Number 45 Squadron, the unit was first equipped with Sopwith 1½ Strutters which it was to fly in the Scout role. Deployed to France in October of that year, the Squadron found itself suffering heavy losses due to the quality of its aircraft and this did not change until it transitioned to the Sopwith Camel in mid-1917. Transferred to the Austro-Italian front at the end of 1917,45 Squadron there engaged in ground attack, assigned to the Independent Air Force,45 Squadron provided long-range bomber escort till the end of the war. During the course of the war, some thirty flying aces had served in the squadrons ranks and they included future Air Vice-Marshal Matthew Frew, Cedric Howell, Geoffrey Hornblower Cock, future Air Commodore Raymond Brownell, John C. B. Harries, Alan Rice-Oxley, Earl Hand, Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet, John Pinder, in 1919 the Squadron returned to England and disbanded. In April 1921 it reformed at Helwan, Egypt, during the mid-war years the unit transitioned to DH9As and Fairey IIIs and then a combination of Hawker Harts, Vickers Vincents and Fairey Gordons. At some point the unit adopted the nickname The Flying Camels, the Squadron Badge is a winged camel, approved by King Edward VIII in October 1936. The badge and nickname derive from the Sopwith used by the unit in World War I, at the start of World War II,45 Squadron converted to Bristol Blenheims. The following day, the participated in an attack on shipping at Tobruk. During late 1940 the squadron supported Allied ground forces in the East African Campaign, while based at Gura and his successor was acting Sqn Ldr Patrick Troughton-Smith. After returning to North Africa, the squadron operated against Italian and German forces in Libya, Egypt, from mid-1942 the unit was deployed to Burma and India, for service against the Japanese. Three aircraft from the Squadron participated in the first Allied bombing raid against Bangkok, during its time in India and Burma,45 Squadron converted to Vultee Vengeance dive-bombers, followed by de Havilland Mosquitos. During World War II, it one of only a few Allied units to have engaged German, Italian, Vichy French. 45 Squadron included a significant number of Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel, after the Second World War,45 Squadron served in the Malayan Emergency, flying out of RAF Station Tengah on the island of Singapore. There the unit engaged in ground operations against Communist Terrorists engaged in a Chinese backed insurgency. Dubbed Operation Firedog, these lasted for 12 years until the successful conclusion of the war. The unit also engaged in operations to quell unrest on the Sarawak coast in British North Borneo during this time period, the unit also had service aircraft, including the Bristol Buckmaster and the Harvard

34.
Albatros D.I
–
The Albatros D. I was a German fighter aircraft used during World War I. Although its operational career was short, it was the first of the Albatros D types which equipped the bulk of the German and Austrian fighter squadrons for the last two years of the war and it was ordered in June 1916 and introduced into squadron service that August. The D. I had a plywood fuselage, consisting of a single-layered outer shell. This was lighter and stronger than the fabric-skinned box-type fuselage then in common use, the Albatros D. I was powered by either a 110 kW Benz Bz. III or a 120 kW Mercedes D. III six-cylinder water cooled inline engine. The additional power of the Mercedes engine enabled twin fixed Spandau machine-guns to be fitted without any loss in performance, the D. I had a relatively high wing loading for its time, and was not particularly manoeuvrable. This was compensated by its speed and firepower and it quickly proved the best all-round fighter available. A total of 50 pre-series and series D. I aircraft were in service by November 1916, replacing the early Fokker and Halberstadt D types, further production of D. II, which became Albatros first major production fighter. III 6-cyl

35.
Jagdstaffel
–
A Jagdstaffel was a fighter Staffel of the German Imperial Luftstreitkräfte during World War I. The Feldfliegerabteilungen were subordinate to the Army command to which they were attached, by the end of the spring of 1915 the first German fighter aircraft were being issued in small numbers to various ordinary Feldflieger-Abteilungen. At this period their function was seen almost entirely as protection for the missions which were the primary responsibility of the German air service. Fighter aircraft already in service and their pilots, were detached from the general-purpose FFA units and brought together in pairs, such units were formed at Vaux, Avillers, Jametz, Cunel and other places along the Western Front as Luftwachtdienst units, consisting only of fighters. This process was by no means universally welcomed, nor did it bring immediate success, Boelcke, as the leading fighter pilot of the day, was called on to organise the manning, equipment and training of Jasta 2 which was to become the model for these new squadrons. Initially Jasta 2 was equipped with a collection of fighters, including early Fokker. In September the squadron began to receive the first of the superior Albatros fighters that would create the German air superiority of the first half of 1917, several pilots of Jasta 2 trained by Boelcke, became fighter leaders, notably Manfred von Richthofen. By April 1917, the Jagdstaffeln had established air superiority on the Western Front. V/D. Va, the Jagdstaffeln concentrated on hindering the work of the Allied two-seater corps, reconnaissance and bombing squadrons. Most Jagdstaffeln were considered to be Prussian while other units were associated with Bavaria, Saxony. The Bavarian Jagdstaffeln in particular were associated for organisational and supply purposes with the Bavarian army, to obtain a local and temporary air superiority, larger fighter units were established, composed of several Jagdstaffeln, known as Jagdgeschwader and Jagdgruppen. These units were moved from one section of the front to another as the situation demanded. By March 1918, there were 80 Jagdstaffeln in the Luftstreitkräfte, a long overdue re-equipment with new types began, most notably the Fokker D. VII, which for the first time since mid-1917, gave the Jagdstaffeln equipment that matched their opponents. German aircraft left the factory in a standard finish - although this differed from one manufacturer to another, initial clear varnish on fabric and wooden surfaces had changed by 1916 to various camouflage schemes. In the Jagdstaffeln this gave way to a riot of colour, a squadron theme was sometimes followed, with machines decorated in similar colours or with similar motifs but generally personal preference seems to have been standard. Jasta 1 Jasta 2 Jasta 5 Jasta 11 Jasta 15 Jasta 18 Jagdstaffeln

36.
No. 43 Squadron RAF
–
No.43 Squadron was a Royal Air Force aircraft squadron originally formed in 1916 as part of the Royal Flying Corps. It saw distinguished service during two wars, producing numerous aces. The squadron last operated the Panavia Tornado F3 from RAF Leuchars, Scotland, in the air defence role and these were taken to the Western Front the following month, where it operated as an Army squadron carrying out fighter reconnaissance duties. In September 1917, Sopwith Camels arrived, and the squadron undertook ground attack duties, during the course of the war, ten aces served in the squadron, including Henry Woollett, Cecil Frederick King, John Lightfoot Trollope, Geoffrey Bailey, Harold Balfour, Charles C. Banks, Hector Daniel, George Lingham, and John Womersley, the squadron was re-formed at RAF Henlow on 1 July 1925, once again equipped with Snipes. In 1926, the converted to Gamecocks, thus inspiring the squadron badge. The black and white checkered markings also date from this era, the squadron flew Siskins from 1928 and received the first production Hawker Fury Mk. I in May 1931. Prior to the outbreak of World War II the squadron re-equipped with Hurricanes, in November 1942,43 Squadron moved to North Africa, now flying Spitfires. In 1944, as the tide of war turned in favour of the Allies, the moved to France. By then the main role was ground attack, strafing. On 9 September 1944, Wing Commander Barrie Heath, flying Spitfire IX MJ628, led a formation on the squadrons first sortie into German territory, strafing motor transport, the squadron ended the war in Austria and was disbanded in 1947. In February 1949, No.266 Squadron was renumbered to No.43 Squadron, the squadron moved to RAF Leuchars in 1950 and in 1954 began to receive the Hawker Hunter. The Hunters of 43 Squadron featured in the 1957 film High Flight, during much of the 1960s the squadron operated from Aden and was disbanded on 7 November 1967. 43 Squadron reformed at Leuchars on 1 September 1969 with the McDonnell Douglas Phantom, with the F3 the squadron participated in the 1991 Gulf War and maintained a presence in the Iraqi no-fly zones. Later,43 Sqn crew and personnel were tasked with Quick Reaction Alert duty, when the squadron was not on operational taskings they flew daily training sorties through the week, all year round. The squadron was awarded the Freedom of the city of Stirling in 2005, in April 2008, the squadron absorbed 56 Squadron to perform the role of Tornado F3 Operational Conversion Unit,56 Squadron having reformed in the ISTAR role. The squadron flagship, ZG757, had a black spine and tail. 43F Sqn stood down on 13 July 2009 for the time in its history

37.
Bloody April
–
The tactical, technological and training differences between the two sides ensured the British suffered a casualty rate nearly four times as great as their opponents. The losses were so disastrous that it threatened to undermine the morale of entire squadrons, nevertheless, the RFC contributed to the success, limited as it finally proved, of the British Army during the five-week campaign. The Royal Flying Corps supported British operations by offering close air support, aerial reconnaissance, the RFCs commanding officer, Hugh Trenchard believed in the offensive use of air power and pushed for operations over German-controlled territory. It was expected the numbers of aircraft assembled over the frontlines in the spring of 1917 would fulfil this purpose. However, the aircraft were, for the most part, inferior to German fighter aircraft, crucially, British pilot training was not only poorly organised and inconsistent, it had to be drastically abbreviated in order to keep squadrons suffering heavy casualties up to strength. German pilot training was, at time, more thorough. These units were led by experienced pilots, some of them survivors of the Fokker Scourge period. And had been working up with the first mass-produced twin-gunned German fighters, paradoxically, the one sided nature of the casualty lists during Bloody April was partly a result of German numerical inferiority. Moreover, they could choose when and how to engage in combat, the Battle of Arras began on 9 April 1917. The Allies launched a joint ground offensive, with the British attacking near Arras in Artois, northern France, in support of the British army, the RFC deployed 25 squadrons, totalling 365 aircraft, about one-third of which were fighters. There were initially only five German Jastas in the region, the Allies fighter squadrons were equipped with obsolete pushers such as the Airco DH.2 and F. E.8 – and other outclassed types such as the Nieuport 17 and Sopwith Pup. Only the SPAD S. VII and Sopwith Triplane could compete on more or less equal terms with the Albatros, the new generation of Allied fighters were not yet ready for service, although No.56 Squadron RFC with the S. E. The new R. E.8 two-seaters, which were eventually to prove less vulnerable than the B. E. 2e, during April 1917, the British lost 245 aircraft,211 aircrew killed or missing and 108 as prisoners of war. The German Air Services recorded the loss of 66 aircraft during the same period, as a comparison, in the five months of the Battle of the Somme of 1916 the RFC had suffered 576 casualties. Under Richthofens leadership, Jasta 11 scored 89 victories during April, in casualties suffered, the month marked the nadir of the RFCs fortunes. However, despite the losses inflicted, the German Air Service failed to stop the RFC carrying out its prime objectives, in particular the artillery spotting aircraft rendered valuable reconnaissance to the British artillery, who were able to maintain their superiority throughout the battle. In spite of their ascendancy in air combat, the German fighter squadrons continued to be used defensively, thus the Jastas established air superiority, but certainly not the air supremacy sometimes claimed. Within a couple of months the new technologically advanced generation of fighter had entered service in numbers, as the British fighter squadrons became once more able to adequately protect the slower reconnaissance and artillery observation machines, RFC losses fell and German losses rose

38.
Dogfight
–
A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft, conducted at close range. Dogfighting first appeared during World War I, shortly after the invention of the airplane, until at least 1992, it was a component in every major war, despite beliefs after World War II that increasingly greater speeds and longer range weapons would make dogfighting obsolete. This differs from aerial warfare, which deals with the involved in planning and executing various missions. The term dogfight has been used for centuries to describe a melee, the term gained popularity during World War II although its origin in air combat can be traced to the latter years of World War I. Both men had orders to kill but neither wanted to harm the other so they exchanged multiple volleys of pistol fire. Dogfighting first emerged in World War I, ever since heavier than air flights became a reality in 1903, people had been trying to figure out how to use this new technology for warfare. Aircraft were initially used as observation vehicles, and early pilots gave little thought to aerial combat. The new airplanes proved their worth by spotting the hidden German advance on Paris in the month of the war. Enemy pilots at first simply exchanged waves, or shook their fists at each other, due to weight restrictions, only small weapons could be carried on board. Intrepid pilots decided to interfere with enemy reconnaissance by improvised means, including throwing bricks, grenades and sometimes rope, pilots quickly began firing hand-held guns at enemy planes, such as pistols and carbines. The Austro-Hungarian pilot initially waved, and Tomić reciprocated, the Austro-Hungarian pilot then fired at Tomić with his revolver. Tomić managed to escape, and within weeks, all Serbian and Austro-Hungarian planes were fitted with machine-guns. In August 1914, Staff-Captain Pyotr Nesterov, from Russia, became the first pilot to ram his plane into an enemy spotter aircraft, in October 1914, an airplane was shot down by a hand gun from another plane for the first time over Rheims, France. Once machine guns were mounted to the airplane, either on a mounting or higher on the wings of early biplanes. The biggest problem was mounting a gun onto an aircraft so that it could be fired forward, through the propeller. Roland Garros solved this problem by mounting steel deflector wedges to the propeller of a Morane Saulnier monoplane and he achieved three kills, but was forced down due to engine failure down behind enemy lines, and captured before he could destroy his plane by burning it. The wreckage was brought to Anthony Fokker, a Dutch designer who built aircraft for the Germans, Fokker decided that the wedges were much too risky, and improved the design by connecting the trigger of an MG08 Maxim machine gun to the timing of the engine. On the evening of July 1,1915, the very first aerial engagement by a plane armed with a synchronized, forward-firing machine gun occurred just to the east of Luneville

39.
Sopwith Camel
–
The Sopwith Camel was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It had been developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the earlier Sopwith Pup, the Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized machine guns. Though proving difficult to handle, it provided for a level of manoeuvrability to an experienced pilot. In total, Camel pilots have been credited with the shooting down of 1,294 enemy aircraft, the Camel also saw use as a two-seat trainer aircraft. In January 1920, the last aircraft of the type were withdrawn from RAF service and it was recognised that the new fighter would need to be faster and have a heavier armament. The design effort to produce this successor, initially designated as the Sopwith F.1, was headed by Sopwiths chief designer, early in its development, the new aircraft was simply referred to as the Big Pup. A metal fairing over the gun breeches, intended to protect the guns from freezing at altitude, however, the Camel name never had any official status in regards to the aircraft. On 22 December 1916, the prototype Camel was first flown by Harry Hawker at Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey, in May 1917, the first production contract for an initial batch of 250 Camels was issued by the British War Office. Throughout 1917, a total of 1,325 Camels were manufactured, by the time that production of the type came to an end, approximately 5,490 Camels of all types had been built. In early 1918, production of the navalised Ships Camel 2F.1 began, while possessing some clear similarities with the Pup, it was furnished with a noticeably bulkier fuselage. In addition to the guns, a total of four Cooper bombs could be carried for ground attack purposes. The upper wing featured a central section for the purpose of providing improved upwards visibility for the pilot. Production Camels were powered by various engines, most commonly either the Clerget 9B or the Bentley BR1. In order to evade a potential manufacturing bottleneck being imposed upon the aircraft in the event of an engine shortage. Unlike the preceding Pup and Triplane, the Camel was considered to be difficult to fly, the Camel soon gained an unfortunate reputation with pilots. Many inexperienced pilots would crash on take-off when the fuel load usually carried pushed the aircrafts centre of gravity beyond the rearmost safe limits. When in level flight, the Camel was markedly tail-heavy, the aircraft could be rigged so that at higher altitudes it could be flown hands off. A stall immediately resulted in a dangerous spin, at length, with the assistance of Lieut Morgan, who managed our workshops, I took the main tank out of several Camels and replaced with a smaller one, which enabled us to fit in dual control

40.
No. 37 Squadron RAF
–
No.37 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron of the First and Second World Wars. No.37 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at RFC Orfordness, Suffolk, on 15 April 1916, in September of that year, it was re-formed, with its headquarters at Woodham Mortimer, in Essex. It responsibilities included defending London against aerial attack, operating out of aerodromes along the East Anglian coast they flew against German Zeppelins, bringing down the L48 on 17 June 1917. The squadron became part of the new Royal Air Force in 1918 and in March 1919 moved to Biggin Hill, in April 1937, the squadron was re-formed as No.37 Squadron from a nucleus provided by No.214 Squadron RAF. By the outbreak of World War II its equipment consisted of Vickers Wellington bombers, in November 1940, the squadron moved to the Middle East. In January 1944 it moved to Foggia Tortorella, sharing the base with USAAF B17 Fortresses, the Wellingtons were replaced by B24 Liberators in early December 1944. On 2 October 1945 the Squadron moved to Aqir Palestine but returned to Shallufa near Suez port Egypt in December from where it was disbanded on 31 March 1946. On 15 April 1946, No.214 Squadron RAF at Fayid was renumbered No.37 which flew Avro Lancaster bombers until it was disbanded again on 1 April 1947 and it reformed again in Palestine on 14 September 1947, once again flying Lancasters. In May 1948, at the time of the British withdrawal from Palestine and they remained there until the squadron disbanded on 7 September 1967. The colours of 37 Squadron are in All Saints Church, Stamford, London Air Defence Area History of No.37 Squadron Aden Veterans page

41.
No. 44 Squadron RAF
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No.44 Squadron was an aviation unit of the Royal Air Force. It was active between 1917 and 1982, for most of its history it served as a heavy bomber squadron. 44 Squadron was formed on 24 July 1917 as a Home Defence unit forming part of the London Air Defence Area, the squadron, based at Hainault Farm, Essex, pioneered the use of the Sopwith Camel in night fighter operations. By the end of the First World War it was commanded by Arthur Harris, disbanded in 1919, the squadron was reformed as a bomber squadron in March 1937 and equipped with Hawker Hinds. Moving to RAF Waddington later that year, it was equipped with Bristol Blenheims before changing to Handley Page Hampdens, during the war the squadron was subsequently based at RAF Dunholme Lodge, near Dunholme, then RAF Spilsby at Great Steeping in Lincolnshire. At the outbreak of the Second World War, as part of Bomber Harris No.5 Group and it was one of only two squadrons to operate continuously throughout the war. There were two commanders who held the Victoria Cross – Wing Commanders Roderick Learoyd and John Nettleton. The badge is based upon the seal of Lo Bengula, the chief of the Matabele on conquest, the seal shows an elephant which, in the case of this unit, is intended to indicate heavy attacks. Total sorties and losses for the war were, Handley Page Hampden –2,043 sorties Avro Lancaster –4,362 sorties The squadron suffered the third highest overall casualties of RAF Bomber Command. In July 1945 the squadron exchanged places with No.75 Squadron in RAF Mepal in Cambridgeshire to prepare for transfer to Tiger Force in the Far East for the war on Japan. After the war the squadron was re-equipped with Avro Lincolns, converting to the Boeing Washington, both types were equipped with various free-fall nuclear weapons. These may have included Blue Danube, US Mk 5 supplied under Project E, Red Beard, Yellow Sun Mk.1, the aircraft was then leveled off at about 10 miles or less from the target. In training this distance tended to creep until the aircraft would have been vulnerable to SAM, a new manoeuvre was developed by the research branch and the Bomber Command Development Unit. This required aircraft to home to a point at a distance from the target based on the mark of aircraft. In the case of 44 Sqn with the Mk 1a Vulcan, the aircraft would then be set in a climb at a specified angle of about 12 degrees for the Mk1a. As the aircraft passed 10,500 feet the bomb would be released and this was crude dead reckoning, and the Mk 1 crews realized that the ballistic computer in the NBC could calculate a much more accurate release point. The crews determined to use the automatic computing, occasionally in training the pull up was late and the release would occur at a much lower altitude. This risked either a failure or suicide from an early burst

42.
No. 78 Squadron RAF
–
No.78 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operated the Merlin HC3/3A transport helicopter from RAF Benson. Until December 2007 it was the operator of two Westland Sea King HAR3s from RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands,78 Squadron was stood down on 30 September 2014 as the Merlin Force transferred to the Commando Helicopter Force of the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm at RNAS Yeovilton. No.78 Squadron was formed as part of the Royal Flying Corps on 1 November 1916 for home defence at Harrietsham and it was originally equipped with obsolescent BE2 and more modern BE12 fighters. On the night of 25 September 1917 a Captain Bell of the squadron encountered a German Gotha and attacked it over RAF Joyce Green. John Rawlings, writing in Fighter Squadrons of the Royal Air Force, stated that it was believed that he damaged it for one of the German raiders failed to return that night, the squadron received Sopwith 1½ Strutters in late 1917, followed by Sopwith Camels in mid-1918. It arrived at Suttons Farm, under the command of Major Cuthbert Rowden, in September 1917 and was there until December 1919, the squadron disbanded on 31 December 1919 following the Armistice. The new squadron moved to RAF Dishforth in Yorkshire early in 1937, in July 1937 it was equipped with Armstrong Whitworth Whitley night bombers. On the outbreak of the Second World War, the squadron was designated as a training squadron and it moved to RAF Linton-on-Ouse on 15 October 1939, returning to Dishforth in July when it returned to front-line duties as a night bomber squadron. In April 1941, the moved to RAF Middleton St. George. In September, the squadron flew its first bombing raid against Berlin and it moved again, to RAF Croft, in October 1941. On the night of 30/31 May 1942,78 Squadron contributed 22 Halifaxes to Operation Millennium, the squadron moved back to Middleton St. George in June 1942 and to Linton-on-Ouse in September 1942. In June 1943, the moved to RAF Breighton to free up Linton-on Ouse for the Canadian bomber force of No.6 Group RAF. In January 1944 the squadron replaced its Merlin-powered Halifax B. IIs with Halifax B. IIIs, in total, the squadron had dropped 17000 t of bombs and mines during 6,337 operational sorties, losing 182 aircraft but claiming 28 enemy fighters shot down. It remained active in the period as a transport squadron, converting to Valettas in April 1950. The squadron was reformed on 24 April 1956 at RAF Khormaksar in Aden and these were replaced by larger, twin-engined, Twin Pioneers in November 1958. In 1965 these were transferred to No.21 Squadron and the converted to a helicopter unit operating the Wessex. It transferred to RAF Sharjah in 1967, continuing to fly in the support and Search. The Squadron reformed on 22 May 1986 when No.1310 Flight, operating Boeing Chinooks, originally operating the Chinook HC.1, these were later replaced with HC. 2s

43.
Foster mounting
–
In early 1916 Sergeant Foster of No.11 Squadron RFC devised a sliding rail mounting for the upper wing Lewis gun on a Nieuport 11 or 16. It enabled the gun to be pulled down so that its breech was conveniently in front of the pilot, as the guns line of fire was outside the propeller arc, Foster-mounted guns did not require synchronising gear. This was an advantage for the Lewis Gun, as its open bolt firing cycle could not be synchronised, the illustration shows a Foster mounting adapted to the Avro 504K night fighter. A Lewis gun on a Foster mount was used to arm some night fighters as it was found that a synchronized Vickers gun could blind the pilot with its muzzle-flash

44.
Aircraft carrier
–
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Aircraft carriers are expensive to build and are critical assets, there is no single definition of an aircraft carrier, and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, Aircraft carriers may be classified according to the type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, former head of the Royal Navy, has said, To put it simply, as of April 2017, there are 37 active aircraft carriers in the world within twelve navies. The United States Navy has 10 large nuclear-powered fleet carriers, the largest carriers in the world, the Royal Navy of Great Britain is building two 280-m / 920-ft carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, and the Prince of Wales scheduled to go into service in 2020-2023. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds, by comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried, most were built from mercantile hulls or, in the case of merchant aircraft carriers, were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet, three nations currently operate carriers of this type, ten by the United States, and one each by France and Brazil for a total of twelve in service. Short take-off but arrested-recovery, these carriers are generally limited to carrying lighter fixed-wing aircraft with more limited payloads, currently, Russia, China, and India possess commissioned carriers of this type. Short take-off vertical-landing, limited to carrying STOVL aircraft and this type of aircraft carrier is currently in service with Italy. Some also count the nine US amphibious assault ships in their secondary light carrier role boosting the total to thirteen. Helicopter carrier, Helicopter carriers have an appearance to other aircraft carriers. Some are designed for addition of, or may include, a ski jump ramp allowing for STOVL operations or may have a ski jump installed before retirement of STOVL aircraft. In the past, some conventional carriers were converted and called commando carriers by the Royal Navy, some helicopter carriers with a resistant flight surface can operate STOVL jets. Currently the majority of carriers, but not all, are classified as amphibious assault ships. The US has nine of this type, France and Japan three, Australia two, the UK one, the Republic of Korea one and Spain one, the US and Spains amphibious assault ships operate STOVL jets in normal deployment. Supercarrier Fleet carrier Light aircraft carrier Escort carrier Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers, two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay

45.
Royal Navy
–
The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive

46.
HMAS Australia (1911)
–
HMAS Australia was one of three Indefatigable-class battlecruisers built for the defence of the British Empire. Ordered by the Australian government in 1909, she was launched in 1911, Australia was the only capital ship ever to serve in the RAN. At the start of World War I, Australia was tasked with finding and destroying the German East Asia Squadron, Australia was then assigned to North Sea operations, which consisted primarily of patrols and exercises, until the end of the war. During this time, Australia was involved in attempts at naval aviation. The battlecruiser was not at the Battle of Jutland, as she was undergoing repairs following a collision with sister ship HMS New Zealand, Australia only ever fired in anger twice, at a German merchant vessel in January 1915, and at a suspected submarine contact in December 1917. Post-war budget cuts saw Australias role downgraded to a ship before she was placed in reserve in 1921. The disarmament provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty required the destruction of Australia as part of the British Empires commitment, the Indefatigable class of battlecruisers were based heavily on the preceding Invincible class. The main difference was that the Indefatigables design was enlarged to give the two wing turrets a wider arc of fire. Australia had a length of 590 feet, a beam of 80 feet. She displaced 18,500 long tons at load and 22,130 long tons at deep load, the Parsons direct-drive steam turbines were designed to produce 44,000 shaft horsepower, which would propel the ship at 25 knots. However, during trials in 1913, Australias turbines provided 55,000 shp, Australia carried approximately 3,200 long tons of coal, and an additional 850 long tons of fuel oil, this was sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. Australia carried eight BL 12-inch Mark X guns in four BVIII* twin turrets, two turrets were mounted fore and aft on the centreline, identified as A and X respectively. The other two were wing turrets mounted amidships and staggered diagonally, P was forward and to port of the funnel, while Q was situated starboard. Each wing turret had limited ability to fire to the opposite side. Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen BL 4-inch Mark VII guns positioned in the superstructure and she mounted two submerged tubes for 18-inch torpedoes, one on each side aft of X barbette, and 12 torpedoes were carried. Australias A turret was fitted with a 9-foot rangefinder at the rear of the turret roof and it was also equipped to control the entire main armament, in case normal fire control positions were knocked out or rendered incommunicado. Australia received a single QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun on a high-angle Mark II mount that was added in March 1915 and this had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 90°. It fired a 12. 5-pound shell at a velocity of 2,500 ft/s at a rate of fire of 12–14 rounds per minute

47.
Royal Air Force
–
The Royal Air Force is the United Kingdoms aerial warfare force. Formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, following victory over the Central Powers in 1918 the RAF emerged as, at the time, the largest air force in the world. The RAF describe its mission statement as, an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission. The mission statement is supported by the RAFs definition of air power, Air power is defined as the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events. Today the Royal Air Force maintains a fleet of various types of aircraft. The majority of the RAFs rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Helicopter Command in support of ground forces, most of the RAFs aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on operations or at long-established overseas bases. It was founded on 1 April 1918, with headquarters located in the former Hotel Cecil, during the First World War, by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps, at that time it was the largest air force in the world. The RAFs naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924, the RAF developed the doctrine of strategic bombing which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War. The RAF underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed Article XV squadrons for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from countries, and exiles from occupied Europe. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine percent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. In the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe, the largest RAF effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, during the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the Royal Air Force was in 1948 and the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E and these were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navys Polaris submarines, the nuclear deterrent passed to the navys submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAFs strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one and this tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by Tornado GR1s. For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period

Fokker Synchronization gear set up for ground firing test. The wooden disc records the point on the disc of the propeller where each round passed. The diagram opposite shows the probable result for a properly working gear. Inherent inaccuracies in both the gear and the triggering of the gun itself, small faults in normal service ammunition, and even the differing RPM rates of the engine, all combine to produce a "spread" of hits rather than every bullet striking the disc in precisely the same spot.

Propeller of an Albatros C.III – one blade severed by faulty or badly adjusted synchronization gear

The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme, German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme …

British aerial photograph of German trenches north of Thiepval, 10 May 1916, with the German forward lines to the lower left. The crenellated appearance of the trenches is due to the presence of traverses.

A young German Sommekämpfer in 1916

British troops moving up to the attack during the Battle of Morval, 25 September 1916.

A Jagdstaffel (plural Jagdstaffeln, abbreviated to Jasta) was a fighter Staffel (squadron) of the German Imperial …

A lineup of Albatros D.III fighters of Jagdstaffel 50 - mid to late 1917. The subdued staffel scheme of black and white stripes and chevrons can be seen on the fuselage and tailplanes of most machines, which are otherwise in factory finish.

An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and …

The Royal Navy's HMS ''Ark Royal'' in 1939, with Swordfish biplane fighters passing overhead. The British aircraft carrier was involved in the crippling of the German battleship the ''Bismarck'' in May 1941